With the commencement ceremony falling on Mother's Day this year, the College of Arts and Sciences took an unconventional approach to its graduation address.
Instead of one speaker, Sunday's ceremony featured a pair -- a mother and her daughter.
Gloria Allred, a 1963 Penn graduate who is a founding partner of a Los Angeles law firm focusing on employee rights, was interviewed on stage by her daughter Lisa Bloom, a Court TV anchor.
The address opened with a rendition of "What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?", a number from the 2003 Tony Award winning musical Avenue Q.
Allred said that every student has the skills and ability to change the world, and quoted Gandhi by instructing the graduates to "be the change you wish to see in the world."
She cited Rosa Parks as an example of a regular person who made an important change in the world, calling her "a heroic warrior for equality."
"I would urge you to have a Rosa Parks moment every day," Allred told the graduates.
School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell opened the ceremony by asking the graduates to raise their caps and salute the mothers in the crowd.
Dennis DeTurck, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, followed Bushnell by discussing some of the accomplishments of the class of 2006.
The crowd erupted in cheers when DeTurck mentioned that over 60 students spent spring break in New Orleans aiding Hurricane Katrina victims.
Also addressing the crowd was graduating senior Jack Cohen, who commented on just how varied his peers' breath of knowledge is.
"I once aspired to be a Renaissance Man like our birthday boy, Ben Franklin," he said. "But I realized that there is just to-o much knowledge out there to make Rennaissance Man a viable profession."
Jon Baker, a 2006 college graduate, thought Allred's "speech was a nice Mother's Day tribute to feminism." He said, "a lot of my classmates enjoyed it."
Fellow graduate Chris Sighinolfi said that he enjoyed the ceremony overall, but could have done without the interview.
"I would favor a traditional speech," he said.
